Anderson, Lackey send Angels to fourth straight win

WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- John Lackey's throwing error in the top
of the seventh inning helped give Washington a brief glimmer of
hope Monday night. But it didn't take long for Lackey's
teammates to pick him up.

Garret Anderson singled home the go-ahead run in the eighth
inning Monday, sending the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim to
their fourth straight victory - a 3-2 interleague win over the
Washington Nationals.

Lackey (5-1) allowed six hits and two runs - one earned - over
eight strong innings to win his fourth straight start, but he
had to overcome some adversity to secure the Angels' 15th
comeback victory.

The Angels are 32-13 in games decided by two runs or less,
winning seven of their last eight one-run contests.

"I don't think it's natural, it ain't ever natural; you'd like
to be winning by more," Angels third baseman Chone Figgins said.
"But our pitching staff keeps us in the ballgame and we're
playing great defense and we're getting some timely hitting,
stuff like that keeps you in ballgames pretty much every night."

With the game tied at 1-1 in the seventh, Lackey seemed to catch
a break when pinch hitter Paul Lo Duca lined a pitch right into
his midsection, but after snaring Lo Duca's liner for one out,
Lackey threw wildly past third base and Willie Harris scampered
home to give Washington a brief 2-1 lead.

"It all happened pretty quick," Lackey said. "It's not like I
thought that one out or it wouldn't have happened."

But with Nationals starter Jason Bergmann gone and Saul Rivera
on in relief, Figgins led off the top of the eighth inning with
a drag bunt. Third baseman Pete Orr and Rivera collided on the
play, with Rivera ending up on his back without a shoe as
Figgins easily sprinted to first.

Then, the mistakes piled up. Figgins stole second and went to
third on a throwing error by Washington catcher Jesus Flores.
With no outs and the Nationals' infield drawn in, Erick Aybar
ripped a grounder under the glove of second baseman Felipe
Lopez, allowing Figgins to jog home with the tying run.

On the play, Aybar never broke stride, making his way to second
base on the two-base error.

"He just couldn't catch a ground ball," Nationals manager Manny
Acta said of Lopez. "I'm not going to over-analyze anything.
He should've had the ground ball and didn't catch it, that's
it."

Aybar said he noticed Nationals right fielder Elijah Dukes took
his time getting to the ball.

"He (Dukes) didn't move too fast, so I looked at the ball, and I
said, Let me go to second base." Aybar said.

Anderson rewarded Aybar's hustle three pitches later when he
lined a single off Rivera (3-4) into right-center, allowing
Aybar to score easily.

The Angels' two-run outburst in the eighth inning overshadowed a
solid outing from Bergmann, who turned in his second straight
fine outing in a game that was delayed 70 minutes because of
rain, holding the Angels to one run and six hits while striking
out six over seven innings of work.

Vladimir Guerrero had one of those hits in the sixth inning,
singling to extend his hitting streak to 14 games. Casey
Kotchman and Aybar each had two hits for the Angels.

MLAT WASHINGTON - SCORING UPDATESOLO HOME RUN BY WILLIE HARRIS (4) TO RIGHT WITH 0 OUT IN THE 3RD OFF JOHN LACKEY.CURRENT SCORE: LA ANGELS 0, WASHINGTON 1DUE UP FOR WASHINGTON: J BERGMANN (.000, 0 HR, 0 RBI)